New Styles of Reasoning in Contemporary Philosophy and Science

The paper discusses the unexpected trends in the most modern forms of philosophy and science.The traditional differences in the roles of philosophy and science can be traced back to Kant: natural sciences refer to possible experience; philosophy as metaphysics does not affect experience at all.Today, there are very different trends.Some physical theories (such as string theory) have a highly theoretical character and cannot be proved by empirical experiments.A new approach has been developed in philosophy too: experimental philosophy, which makes use of empirical data to inform research on philosophical questions.Are these approaches just contradictions in terms or rather new styles of reasoning?The goal is not a deep analysis of x-phi or string theory but a reflection on the context between tradition and new trends in philosophy and science which are still rather marginal but may play an important role in the future.